Spunlace material consists of mechanically bonded non-woven fabric in which interlocking of the fibres and the fibre structure are obtained by entangling the fibres of a fibrous web with the aid of thin jets of air or liquid, i.e. the structure is obtained by means of a so-called entangling process. The present application is concerned solely with spunlace material produced by hydroentangling, i.e. entangling that is achieved with the aid of liquid jets. Such material has pronounced textile-like properties in comparison with other nonwoven fabrics, and also affords a relatively high degree of flexibility to the method of manufacture with regard to the properties of the material produced, owing to the fact that the properties of said material can be varied to a great extent through the appropriate selection of fibres, fibre mixtures, fibre forming, degree of entanglement, the structure of the entangling wires used, etc. As a result, the use of spunlace material has become more and more usual.
Such material can be used effectively to wipe-up or absorb liquid, and also to spread or to disperse liquid that comes into contact therewith. Another area in which spunlace material can be used is found in the casing layers of disposable absorbent articles, where the textile-like structure of the material is felt by the consumer to be more friendly to the skin than other types of nonwoven materials, which are often felt to have a "plastic" texture.